Ohio Wesleyan Wins Shootout with Baldwin Wallace

DELAWARE, Ohio - Freshman midfielders Maddie Russell (Rocky River) and Sierra Thomas (Medina/ Senior) each scored a career-high and single-season school-record-tying five goals, but Baldwin Wallace lost at host Ohio Wesleyan, 16-12, at Selby Field. It was the second match of the season for each team.

With its loss, the Yellow Jackets are 1-1 overall and next play on Wednesday, March 12 versus Curry (Mass.) College at the 18th Annual "Spring Fling in Palm Beach, Florida at 7:30 p.m. In addition, the Yellow Jackets play Columbia (S.C.) College on its way home on Friday, March 14 at 6:00 p.m.

Ohio Wesleyan, 2-0 overall, was led by sophomore attacker Megan Doherty and sophomore midfielder Cate Bailey with three goals each. The Battling Bishops had more balance with four other players scoring twice each. In goal, junior Jordan Bernstein played the first half and freshman Natalie Reddy played the second and combined for the victory.

OWU outshot the Yellow Jackets, 33-19 and had a 21-9 advantage in draw controls. BW won the battle of ground balls, 18-15.

The battling Bishops grabbed a 1-0 lead at 26:31 when senior midfielder Loro Weischedel scored the first of two consecutive goals on a free position shot. The lead grew to 3-0 at 23:34 when Doherty scored with an assist from sophomore attacker Patricia Ryan. BW earned its first goal at 19:10 when Maddie Russell scored on a free position shot.

OWU moved ahead 4-1 at 17:39, but Russell kept it a two-goal match with her second at 10:23 on another free position shot and the Yellow Jackets closed to 4-3 when Russell scored her third of the contest at 9:18. After the Bishops increased their advantage to 5-3 at 7:42, Russell scored her fourth of the contest at 6:14 to make 5-4. Then BW's Kelsey Johnson picked up a ground ball at 4:58 and scored to tie it at 5-5 at 4:54 with her first of the contest.

OWU regained a 6-5 lead at 1:46 when Bailey scored her second goal of the match. The score remained that way at halftime.

The Battling Bishops increased their advantage to 7-5 at 27:27 when Ryan scored her first of the match, but Russell made it 7-6 at 25:50 when she scored her single-game school-record-tying fifth goal of the match. The goal tied Thomas, this week's Ohio Athletic Conference Player of the Week, for the record. Thomas turned the trick last weekend in a 19-1 win versus Lourdes University.

OWU got goals from sophomore midfielder Taylor Weis and Ryan to build a 9-6 lead at 22:45 before Thomas netted her first goal of the contest at 22:29. Undaunted, the Bishops scored 27 seconds later when Weis made it 10-7 at 22:02, freshman attacker Mia Minguela made it 11-7 at 21:25 and senior midfielder Theresa Wolfgang made it 12-7 at 19:05.

BW closed the gap to 12-9 on goals by Budzyn at 17:24 and Thomas' second of the match at 12:49. But the Bishops put the match away when Wolgang scored her second of the match at 7:46 and Bailey her third at 6:44 to make it 14-9. A Thomas goal at 4:49 cut the deficit to 14-10. OWU's Doherty scored consecutive goals at 3:27 and 2:21, respectively, to make it 16-10. Thomas adeed her fourth goal of the match with 1:13 left and her record-tying fifth with 32 seconds remaining to end the scoring.